Surviving, Teaching, and Appreciating Boys

We finally noticed a pattern. When one of our children got somewhere between nine and fourteen, they’d climb on an emotional rollercoaster and invite us all to join them. Wow, what a tough age to parent! The first time we went through it, we questioned everything, “Is it us? Have we failed in parenting? Is… Read More

We are thrilled to announce that we’ll be hosting an hourlong weekly streaming radio show on the new Ultimate Radio Network! Our new show, Making Biblical Family Life Practical, will be the Hal & Melanie you guys know and love — there will be lots of back and forth and humor, but also pointed, principled… Read More

I was so excited about taking our children to Yellowstone National Park. I’d been there with my family as a child and some of the happiest memories of my father, who’s been in heaven many years are centered around that area. Unfortunately, I tore a ligament in my knee on one of our conference trips… Read More

A few weeks ago, our son Matt came in and said, “Mom, you know it makes a guy feel good to take responsibility – to meet a need, to do something that matters. I had no idea how much fun it could be to be the one to take care of something.” I think there… Read More

A reader wrote in last week asking for help with a son’s difficulty: We are trying to “prep” our 13 year old son for an interview at our local history museum. He would like to volunteer there but they seem sceptical as to “why any 13 year old boy would want to” (according to the… Read More

Several years ago, a friend of ours decided to eliminate gender stereotypes from her children’s upbringing. When her daughter was born, Mom bought trucks and construction toys for the child to play with. When a son came along, she bought him a baby doll. As it turned out, her kids weren’t buying it—neither one of… Read More

Talk about bad headlines. Following a study presented to the American Psychological Association, the media asked, “Being A Mama’s Boy: Good For Your Health?” The gist of the study by Dr. Carlos Santos of Arizona State University suggested that boys who “resist” male stereotypes and are close to their mothers grow up with better mental… Read More

The King’s School is the oldest independent private academy in Australia. The headmaster of the all-male, K-12 boarding school, Dr. Tim Hawkes, presented a paper at the International Boys’ School Coalition conference in Toronto, Canada, a few years ago, starting his presentation with this observation: When the philosopher, Aristippus of Cyrene, was asked some 400… Read More

Several years ago, it occurred to us that maybe the teenaged years didn’t have to be full of anger, rebellion, and sullenness. Just because we went through it or saw it in our friends growing up, does that mean it has to be that way? Is that what you see in the Bible? Through history?… Read More

Dear Friends and Family, Hal and I spent the day at Duke today consulting with the oncologist and thoracic surgeon. There is a very large tumor behind Hal’s breastbone. It is providential that it is in this site because if it were *anywhere* else, he could not have had a tumor this large and not… Read More

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